


Captain America Can Never Be This Punk

by jojoandpicnic



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Gen, Visual Kei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7355383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jojoandpicnic/pseuds/jojoandpicnic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After five years of only hearing about Kiku's band, Alfred is finally invited to see them preform. By the end of the night, he's asked himself the same question many times. Is he in the right place?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captain America Can Never Be This Punk

“Yeah, ‘course I’ll come, Kiku,” Alfred said excitedly, clapping a hand around his friend’s shoulders. “Why would I pass up a chance to hear you and your band? That, you know, you only ever talk about and never let me hear your music or meet your other band members or anything even though we’re best buds?” Okay, yeah, sure, Al was a bit resentful that this was the first time Kiku had invited him to one of his band’s gigs out of the five years they had known each other. And the band had been around for seven years. It was about damn time in Alfred’s opinion.

Kiku’s ears turned pink. “ごめんなさい, Alfred-san. I am just nervous about how you will react.”

“What’re you talking about dude? It’s gonna be awesome!”

* * *

 

Showing up to the venue, Alfred knew exactly what Kiku had been talking about when he said he was unsure how Alfred would react. Because Alfred wasn’t exactly sure how to react.

The place was filled with punks. Dark clothes (and some super bright outliers), eye liner, red lipstick (not the Taylor Swift kind), crazy hair… Alfred immediately felt out of place in his Captain America shirt and blue jeans. What type of band was Kiku in anyways? Whenever he had brought it up, Alfred assumed they played music akin to the Beatles, or the Lumineers, or one of those bands that didn’t have heavy death metal punks as fans. Also on that note, what was Kiku’s band’s name? How did Alfred not even know that? He was pretty sure Kiku had told him once, but he was also pretty sure he had been eating a five layer burger from McDonald’s at the time and thus fully occupied.

He fought his way as far to the front as he could get, probably making enemies on the way, and stopped next to a guy with green hair and a girl who had, no shit, nine inch platforms. Alfred wondered if she would be standing in them all night because, damn, that’s gotta hurt. Then again, seeing as those nine inch platforms only brought her to just below Alfred’s nose, he understood why she was wearing them. Green Hair and Platform were each minding their own business, so Al decided to do the same, even though he was the Chattiest Cathy he knew. Besides, what could he possibly have in common with these people? No offense to them and their life style choices, but Alfred was more of a bright colors person.

“You’re a bit out of place, aren’t you,” a British voice to his left asked. Green Hair was looking him up and down like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “How long have you been listening to DD?”

Al’s face scrunched up. “Who’s Deedee? I’m here to see a band.”

Green Hair’s face dropped in disbelief. “Distorted Daytime. DD. The band.”

The light was switched on. Al sucked in a breath and released it out into a long, “ _Oh_.” He nodded to himself. That made sense. “Distorted Daytime, huh? That’s a cool band name.” Green Hair was giving him a look, like Alfred was stupid or something. “What? Kiku never told me his band’s name.” 

“Kiku? You mean Ren?”

“Who? No, Kiku. My friend. Short Asian guy, super polite, wears sweater vests. Plays guitar.” Alfred pulled out his phone and opened the photo app to find a picture of Kiku. Quickly, he showed Green Hair a selfie of him and Kiku, the one where they had gone to see Captain America: Civil War and Alfred had demanded a photo of them in front of the poster to post on Facebook. “See?”

Green Hair’s eyebrows - which, Al noted, looked surprisingly similar to caterpillars - shot up. “Is that what Ren looks like everyday?”

Alfred frowned. “Again with this Ren guy.”

“His stage name.”

“His what?!” Al snorted. “Keeks has a stage name?” He doubled over laughing. What type of band was this? The more he heard about it and saw the kind of people here, the more he was wondering just what Kiku was hiding from him. “Oh my God. I’ve known him for, like, five years, but apparently I don’t know him at all! _Stage name_.” He was drawing attention because of his boisterous laughter, Platform had even moved a few inches away from him, but naturally he didn’t care. This was the funniest thing he’d heard all month.

There was a thump on the top of his head. He uncurled from his hunched over position and tried to calm his giggles. Green Hair was scowling. “Tone it down, it’s not that funny.” Alfred noticed Green Hair had eyes as green as his hair.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Alfred agreed, smiling like there was no tomorrow. “It isn’t funny. It’s hilarious.” Green Hair rolled his pretty green eyes. “Oh, c’mon, stage name! Not everyone has a stage name!”

Green Hair sighed like he couldn’t believe he had to explain it. “These types of bands usually have stage names. It’s cool.” Alfred snorted again at ‘cool.’ “I don’t expect someone like you to understand.”

He nodded. It was kind of difficult to understand — he had always thought he had a pretty solid picture of Kiku’s character, but this was throwing black paint all over it. “So what kind of music do they play anyway? This isn’t the sort of crowd I imagined Keeks playing for.” As if on cue, the lights dimmed and the crowd started to roar. Green Hair didn’t answer him in favor of hollering along with everybody else. Alfred let out a big “Whoop!” in excitement. He’d finally hear Kiku’s band play.

Except he wasn’t really sure if he was in the right place. Again. Because the musicians that came on stage were not at all what he had expected Kiku’s band members to look like and he couldn’t really tell which one Kiku was, which was absurd because Alfred was pretty sure it wasn’t that hard to recognize the face of one of his best friends, but wouldn’t it figure that he couldn’t when it mattered most? At least he knew it wasn’t the one girl up on stage. It wasn’t until the members took up their places and instruments did Alfred recognize Kiku’s guitar and, in turn, Kiku.

But holy hell was that really _Kiku_? Around those familiar blank brown eyes was a nice line of eyeliner, those pale lips were now coated in a dark purple color, and _holy shit_ he had, like, five ear piercings. Why had Alfred never noticed his friend had pierced ears? How does that happen?! Instead of a nice, comfy sweater vest, he was sporting a dark leather vest, open down the front, with a white crop top underneath. In place of khakis were form fitting skinny jeans with so many holes they may as well have been Swiss cheese. Gone were Kiku’s usual tennis shoes, replaced with black cowboy boots (which, honestly, would have made Alfred laugh if he wasn’t so shocked). Around his neck swung three different necklaces of varying shades of purple. The back of his hair had been styled in a fashion that reminded Alfred of sex hair and the ends seemed to have been temporarily colored a vibrant violet.

Alfred felt his mouth grow dry. Kiku looked _hot_.

And that wasn’t a train of thought Alfred had a lot of interest in pursuing at the moment, so he focused his attention on the lead singer. The singer had bleached platinum blond hair hidden underneath a fedora, pale lips, and vibrant red eyeshadow to enhance his unnaturally red eyes. Contacts, Alfred thought, creepy ass contacts. He was adorned in a gray button up, sleeves rolled to the elbows, a red tie around his neck, and leather pants. There were too many piercings on the guy’s face for Alfred to count. The guy waited for the crowd to settle down a bit before signaling his mates to start playing.

When the first notes started playing, Alfred asked himself the same question he had been asking himself the entire time. _Am I really in the right place?!_ The music Kiku’s band played was completely unlike how Alfred had been expecting. The dream of nice, relaxed guitar music with a soft lulling voice was harshly shattered by the reality of heavy banging drums, a bass so loud his ears throbbed with the first thrum, and instead of singing, the vocalist screamed into the microphone with all the passion a person could hold in their body.It was a heavy metal rock band so unlike Kiku’s usual character that Alfred was wondering if five years of uptight politeness had finally cracked Kiku and this was all one big prank on Alfred. Which Alfred wouldn’t mind at all, he would even have a nice laugh about it, but something told him that this was really who Kiku was. Bizarre and kick ass.

The first song ended, leaving a dull throbbing in Alfred’s ears that he knew would get progressively worse as the night went on. Vocalist Guy whooped into the mic and shouted, “What’s up guys?!” The crowd roared in response. “You’re all amazing! Thanks for coming and enjoy the show!” With that, the band started back up again.

At the half way point of the show when the band went offstage to take a break, Alfred’s ears were pounding and he felt like he was half deaf in his right ear. Green Hair turned to him and in a slightly above average volume asked, “How are you liking the show?”

“It’s great!” Al said enthusiastically. “Totally unlike what I was expecting, but I like it! I wish Kiku had invited me before this. That singer is really energetic.”

Green Hair smiled. “Good. Yeah, Zuzu can be a bit much.” Alfred wondered what Zuzu’s real name was, but he figured he could get Kiku to tell him afterwards. “I don’t know how he finds it in him to hop and prance around the stage like that. I wouldn’t be able to do that past the first song.”

Al nodded. “I _know_. He was tiring me out just by watching.”

“I’m wondering if he even needs this break or if its just for the other members.” They dissolved into a fit of giggles.

By the time the concert ended, Alfred learned Green Hair’s name (Arthur), the band’s drummer, bassist, and second guitarist’s stage names (Dragon, Aya, and Leo), and that Dragon and Aya were siblings while Leo was their cousin. He was buzzing with left over adrenaline and excitement. He and Arthur were heading out from the mosh pit when a fantastic idea came to his mind. “Hey,” he said, “D’you wanna meet them?”

Arthur actually stopped walking to look surprised. “Pardon?”

“Yeah! I’m supposed to meet Kiku backstage. You wanna come with?”

The pair made their way backstage in the round about way that Kiku told him about. By the time they made it there, the band was almost ready to head out. Alfred quickly spotted Kiku and, for the second time that night, had his breath stolen away by the image he presented. At this point, Al thought he had a weird kink for "visual kei," as Arthur had called it, the band's special style. (Though this begged the question as to why Alfred didn't feel the same attraction to the other band members, but this was hardly time for an in depth look into his feelings and attractions.)

"Hey, Keeks!" Alfred called and waved his hand.

Kiku shouldered his guitar and looked over at Al with a blush on his face. “今晩は, Alfred-san." He made his way past his band members to stand closer to them.

"Hope ya don't mind," Al said, "but I made a friend in the crowd. This is Arthur." Arthur gave a tiny wave and Kiku returned with the same greeting he had given Alfred. "Dude, I had so much fun, but man. A little warning next time maybe? I'm not dressed for this kind of music! And you should've totally told me what type of music you guys played because I was really unsure that I was in the right place and-" Alfred cut off with a big gasp when he remembered something. "You have a stage name!" He started laughing again - it was seriously the funniest thing he'd heard in a long time. He could see Arthur rolling his eyes again. "Dude! Why didn't you tell me?!”

It was then that one of Kiku's band members joined them — Zuzu the vocalist. He seemed to still be buzzing with energy, which Alfred admired and was vaguely jealous of. “Is this him?” he asked Kiku excitedly before turning to Alfred. Alfred was definitely happy that those creepy contacts had been taken out. “Hi! I’m Yong Soo! Kiku’s told us practically nothing about you. It’s nice to meet you!” He grabbed Alfred’s hand and started shaking it with such vivacity Alfred wondered if his arm might fall off.

Al smiled politely and took his hand back before it could break. “Nice to meet you, too.” He motioned to Arthur standing beside him and introduced him to Yong Soo, who proceeded to shake Arthur’s hand in very much the same manner as before. Al wondered if Yong Soo knew he was a walking coffee bean. Arthur, for the most part, was looking starstruck, which had Alfred snickering.

After Yong Soo was done shaking Arthur’s hand, he dragged them over to the other members, Kiku trailing behind, looking affronted that his guest and plus one had been taken away. The girl, Aya, had taken off her bright pink lipstick and eyeshadow, thrown a brown sweatshirt over her pink dress, and had replaced the heels with sneakers. Her hair had been pulled back in a high ponytail, accentuating the dyed pink tips. The drummer’s own hair was still in the low ponytail he had been sporting all concert, but he was no longer wearing the gold hat or jacket. Up close, Alfred could see that Dragon had probably gotten his name from the dragon tattoos on his arms, or maybe he had gotten the tattoos after the fact. Leo was sitting down on a speaker looking completely bored, his painted blue fingernails drumming on his bass case in his lap. He had not changed much after getting off the stage, only having adorned a zip-up jacket to cover up his blue tank top.

“Guys,” Yong Soo started to grab his band member’s attention. Leo didn’t move a muscle, but Aya and Dragon gave him their attention, albeit divided. “These are Kiku’s groupies.” Kiku sputtered and hastily introduced them correctly.

Aya seemed to perk up at Alfred’s name. She gave him her undivided attention and smiled warmly. “It’s night to meet you,” she said and held out her hand for Alfred to shake, which he did. “I’m Mei, the rhythm guitarist. This is Yao, our drummer.” She shoved her shoulder against Dragon who looked a bit put off but didn’t say anything. He shook Alfred’s hand as well. “And that Debby-Downer over there is Xiao.” Leo picked up his fingers to give a quick peace sign and then immediately returned to drumming them against the case.

“You were awesome,” Alfred told them genuinely. “I really liked the show. I wish Kiku had offered for me to come ages ago.” He threw his arm around Kiku’s shoulders and dragged him closer. “Y’know, ‘cause, he made me wait five years.”

Kiku had the decency to look ashamed. “I did not know you would enjoy yourself this much.”

Alfred laughed. “Dude! Who doesn’t have fun at concerts? Besides,” he added, “have you seen how you look right now?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

Yong Soo nodded with a big, cheeky smile on his face. “Hot right? I picked those pants out myself.” This earned him a smack on the head by Mei. Kiku’s face turned pink.

“You’re coming with us to get drinks, right,” Mei asked kindly, ignoring the finger Yong Soo flipped in her direction as he rubbed his head.

“Oh, yeah!”Al looked at Arthur. “You’re coming too, right Artie?”

“Arthur,” Arthur corrected automatically. “Am I invited?”

“The more the merrier,” Yong Soo sang.

Yao stepped forward and past the group blocking the exit. “Then come on. I need a drink to handle all of you.” Xiao nodded along as he exited as well.

Yong Soo grabbed Mei and Kiku’s hands to drag the rest of the group out, cheering, “Off we go!”

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Oh my God, you guys! It’s Anime Expo again! I can’t imagine how much fun I’ll have today, but I hope you guys have as much fun. Couldn’t decide if I wanted this to be Ameripan or USUK. idk It can be whatever you want it to be. :P Thank you guys and have a Happy Canada Day! :)  
> Translations:  
> ごめんなさい: gomennasai “I’m sorry.”  
> 今晩は: konbanwa “Good evening.”


End file.
